Development and initial assessment of a teaching-learning programme in anatomy.

The somewhat restricted literature on basic techniques of anatomy teaching contains few examples of assessment of the value of innovative approaches, though there are important exceptions. For example, the consequences of replacing dissection of lower limb by work on prosected specimens and within a much reduced time framework have been studied by Sinclair (1965), and more recently the same author (Sinclair, 1972) has assessed the effect of a reduced time allocation on the recall of anatomical data. Perhaps surprisingly, in view of the frequent necessity to curtail courses and consequently to define ‘relevance’ and ‘core’, there has been little reference to the use of objectives (Moffat, Jacobs, and Metcalf, 1971) or to the definition of objectives in terms of ordered behavioural outcomes (Gronlund, 1970). Though the techniques of small group discussion have previously been used within an anatomy department (Abercrombie, 1969; Johnson, 1950) for their broad educational value, they were only peripherally applied to teaching programmes in the subject. The teaching-learning programme to be described was developed at the University of New South Wales in 1972. It was aimed at the twin problems of defining relevance and promoting active group learning in anatomy by the respective use of specific behavioural objectives (Gronlund, 1970) and techniques of associative group discussion (Abercrombie, 1971).